Tempe-Based Startup TourKidd to Launch Prototype With Party at Icehouse

Even with all the great gifts the internet blesses us with (gag me), booking shows can still be a frustrating chore. For musicians, knowing which venues are ideal or which promoter might actually, you know, promote you can involve a lot of who-knows-who and nepotism. For promoters, it can be a lot of legwork trying to pair the right bands with the right scene. And for venues, you can't always tell which musicians are going to perform well or draw the biggest crowds.

That's where TourKidd hopes to help. Aiming to take out some of the guesswork in booking, especially in other states, TourKidd is a local startup aiming to serve as an online directory for everything music related.

And to prove that putting together a great show isn't rocket science, TourKidd are throwing one of the (arguably) most rambunctious parties this year. No less than 15 local bands, from a wide variety of musical backgrounds, will pack the Icehouse in downtown Phoenix on April 25, which coincides with TourKidd's prototype launch.

The night's lineup across three stages includes Destruction Unit (psychedelic noise), Playboy Manbaby (ska rap), Injury Reserve (hip-hop), and Owl & Penny (folk), just to name a few. Here's the full list. True to the company's spirit (the chosen mantra being 'DIY, together') TourKidd's launch show brings together five of the Valley's most influential collectives: Las Fuegas, The Underground Foundation, Ascetic House, Agape Collective and Rubber Brother Records.

We headed down to TourKidd's new office in Tempe (right next to Cartel Coffee Lab) to talk to the app's founders Khayree Billingslea and Nick Aufiero (the last co-founder, Seve Zavala, couldn't join us). The office was a stark, one-room conference table, but its humble beginnings show a lot of potential for growth. Already, the site has over 100 venues in their directory, and several bands (including a handful playing at this show) are already using it. The prototype launch will cover southwestern states from California to Texas, but it'll be a bit before they cover the rest of the country.

"The rollout is regional [so far]," Aufiero says. "But we have people signing up from Chicago, Atlanta, one from D.C., there's Austin. So there are people that want this but it doesn't make sense to release this to the wild. We have to stick to our guns about rolling this out smartly."

Billingslea is encouraging more users to sign up and the company is welcoming feedback.

"You can do all the research, all the interviews, all the user tests that you can imagine, but at the end of the day you're not going to know until it's launched," Billingslea says. "If you have a venue, you should probably claim your account on Tour Kidd. It's a good idea to do that. People will be searching this and band's will. House venues -- if you have a house, please, make an account, make Tempe survive. You don't have to put the address, obviously, but you will receive messages, people will contact you."